On the 16th May 2009 I was invited by KEMAS to give a lecture on 'Getting To Know ICT' to young students in a small town in Batu Pahat, Johor. It was a full day lecture in Bahasa Malaysia and that was tough, Not just because of the duration but also the language medium especially when it has to be formal. Not to mention that I was on medication because of the allergy attack I had few days ago. It was quite a trip not only because of the drug but also reminiscing about on how ICT was inspired by the generation of the 60s. From the movie '2001: A Space Odyssey' , Douglas Engelbart -the inventor of the mouse, Intel chip 4004 - First commercial microprocessor, the Altair 8800 that sparks the personal computer revolution, Microsoft and Apple, the Amiga, the first Mac, IBM PC, the first Windows and finally Windows XP in 2001. As a kid who grew up in the 60s I thought 2001 and beyond was like the sci-fi movie. But there I was standing at the podium in 2009 talking to a generation of my future who has little knowledge of the magic in their hands. The magic that was inspired by a colourful generation. So I asked them "What will you give to your future generation?" I looked into their eyes for some answers. Like I was when I was a kid their age, I had no idea what would the future brings.
In 2001 I was in in L.A. attending the computer graphic conference 'Siggraph 2001'. I had a chance in meeting the futurists of the 60s in a special session reflecting the time when '2001: A Space Odyssey' was screened. We remembered the Vietnam war and the protests. Yet during those troubled times there was hope for a better future. Man landed on the moon the next year and many other events followed. In the following photo in front of the L.A Convention Center I felt that I finally arrived. It was the end of a revolution and a dream. A rainbow's end in la-la land.
I hope the kids that I spoke to will arrive at their own dreams. I hope they don't waste their times on the internet and computer games. We will be arriving in 2010 soon. It was also a Space Odyssey about it but it is not the same. Dreamers are too few nowadays. It is just about getting bigger or smaller, better and faster and cheaper in China.
